


Wheezing, Groaning Sound

by Zarius



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (TV Movie 1996)
Genre: Gen, terrance dicks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 16:28:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20491808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarius/pseuds/Zarius
Summary: A look at how The Eighth Doctor deals with indigestion in his ship





	Wheezing, Groaning Sound

In the catacombs of an unearthly machine, a posh and astute Edwardian gentleman was putting on a pair of stethoscopes and checking the purring rhythms of a most unorthodox structure. It resembled an eyelid, firmly shut, but it would know no slumber.

All around him, there was a wheezing, groaning sound. The sounds of a machine in dire need of function, a cry for help as something twisted it's innards like a freshly baked pretzel.

It had been causing the time/space craft known as THE TARDIS a great deal of grief, and had caused it to fowl up the most precise of tasks. Throwing it off course when heading to intended destinations, and even causing records being played to scratch and loop, much to the constant irritation of the gentleman.

"Yes, I thought as much, have no worry my dear, all will be mended shortly" said the gentleman, the valiant time lord known as THE DOCTOR, now in the eighth phase of his thirteen regeneration cycle, as he took the stethoscopes off and reaching into his pockets for a packet of jelly babies.

He poured a few into his hand and gave it a sprinkling of golden regenerative dust that he had procured from the aftermath of his faithful ship's temporal orbit.

He leaned over the columns that separated him from the eye.

"Open up and take a nibble on these" he said.

The eyelid briefly obliged, only to snap shut just as quickly.

"Don't be shy, nothing's going to poke you, from outside or in" he said.

The eyelid, again hesitant, opened and shut in rapid succession, daring The Doctor to partake in a contest of wits. It challenged him to try and deposit the jelly babies before it could 'blink'.

"Now's not the time for games, what you've got in there is causing the rest of the ship a great deal of indigestion, this'll remedy that" he advised.

The structure, in reality the manifestation of a Gallifreyan super weapon the EYE OF HARMONY, was again not willing to play by The Doctor's rule, and sought to undermine it.

A part of it felt compelled to, something within it was having a hypnotic effect, subduing it, and making it suggestible to resistance, to rebellion.

"I know you're in there you know, I know you have something to do with this, and this is not playtime, The Doctor is on call here"

The eye of harmony strained itself, compelled to obey the calling to remain closed, and continue to give the TARDIS it's near endless dose of discomfort.

"You really think this is for the eye? It's not, I can't imagine what it's like for you to break down in there, so this is to help rebuild you, I'm showing you a kindness, however unearned it is, because there's cruller fates than to be dispersed across the ravages of time and space"

Almost in such a state of weariness that the words of his hated enemy, the disembodied energies of the renegade time lord THE MASTER entertained the eye with a swift mental instruction to open, leaving it vulnerable to The Doctor's mercy.

He deposited the radiant jelly babies into the pulsating concoction of bluish grey and emerald green light, in time, the light became the clearest blue and the emerald green subsided. The eye closed.

The Doctor kept his ears open for the slightest sign of unsettlement from his ship, but the wheezing and groaning had dissipated; all was calm, quiet, and merciful.

The Doctor knew it wasn't over, he had tamed the enemy within, but it would eventually learn to ride the wave of energy within the eye, it would forget the mercy shown towards it today, and it would rise. The Master would rise.

And indigestion would be the least of The Doctor's worries.

**Author's Note:**

> DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF TERRANCE DICKS


End file.
